Unfortunately somebody I was climbing with got grease on my rope. Grease is a petroleum based product and alone should not cause any damage. BUT, grease can contain additives (Also, depending on the medium its stored in it can possibly contain other contaminants) in some industrial applications and in my case there was no way to tell what components were in the grease (this could parallel oil composition????). I emailed the manufacturer and they suggested I retire the rope (no surprise there). I did use the rope on two occasions after the exposure for TR setups. Considering the importance of a functioning rope to efficiently distribute energy when falling, I will not use it while leading. Washing the rope with Bluewater rope cleaner removed the grease, but long story short-Iím going to buy a new rope because I think the 180$ is worth eliminating any anxiety while climbing.

I'm not aware of anything on that list that is known to damage Nylon. I am just a bit curious about the "natural methyl esters", but the chance that that is homemade Biodiesel with a signif. amount of residual sodium methoxide is pretty far-fetched. And that's the only remote possibility I can come up with to worry.

And the amount of this oil that may have contacted the rope sounds absolutely miniscule.

Naturally the rope manuf. will recommend replacement; what else could they say? The oil manuf. probably don't even know what climbing rope is. So their input is useless IMO. YMMV.

Maybe methyl ester is similar to denatured alcohol? Just a guess. Petrolium isn't an issue in the form of gas or oil, but that's not to say that additives aren't. Cut a little bit off the end of your rope and soak it in that stuff overnight. See what happens. If you use a longer section, say 15-20 feet. You could probably take it to a crane and rigging shop to have them test it on their puller if there's one in your area. Or just try and figure out exactly what the additives are. I would also hazard a guess that if you just had a little on your hands and ran it over your rope, like during a rappell, it wouldn't be much of an issue, but it's your piece of mind, which is worth the cost of a rope.